Dispensing attachment for containers



Sept. 18, 1945.

J. B. CLOWER DISPENSING ATTACHMENT FQR CONTAINERS Filed March 19, 1943J0sephB.CZowez- Patented Sept. 18, 1945 :ommsmm OFFICE DISPENSINGATTAOHMiiNT FOR 4 CONTAINERS...

Joseph B; Clower, Woodstock, Va. Application March 19, 1943, SeriaiNo.479,791 j 4 Claims; (01. ZZZ-5456) The present invention relates todispensing attachments for containers suchas bottles,jars

therefrom of an accurately measured volume of contents. The contents maybe a dry solid, such as 'a' powdered'or granular material, or itmay be afluid, such as a liquid or a viscous substance such as'a syrup. a

The device is especially useful in establishments such as pharmacieswhich present the problem of making rapidly the frequent dispensing ofaccurately measured volumes of pharmaceuticals, medicaments,-fiavoringsyrups and the like. a i

Devices of the general character provided by this invention havebeenmade heretofore, but all of them, so far as I am aware, havebeen-subject to inherent disadvantages and have not gone intowidespreaduse. The present invention aims to provide a dispensingattachment whichwill be free of the defects ofthe best prior art devices of this -kind.'r i Incidental objects are concerned with providing a dispensingattachment of the character indicated which will be simple in itsconstruction, inexpensive to make, foolproof and leakproof in operation,and generally rigid and durable.

-A further important object is to provide a dispensing attachment whichwill permit ready and easy change of a measuring chamber-from one sizeto another, so that difierent measured quantities of the contents of thecontainer can be dispensed.

A further object is to provide an attachment by which a measuredquantity of the contents of a container may be dispensed directly intoan upright r'eceptacle while the container standsin upright position.-This feature of the invention permits material to be dispensed into areceptacle which is already nearly full and will be filled by theaddedmaterial, sothat such receptacle could;

not be held in inclined position without spilling its contents. I

- A--further object is to provide such-anattachment with'a singlewidedischargeopening so that it becomes unnecessary to add any secondopening for venting purposes. 'With the foregoing and other objects inview the invention comprises the construction which will now beexplained by detailed reference toxthe accompanying drawing which showsa1preferred embodiment'oi the inventiomin which i Figure 1 isaside-elevational view of a bottle or arciin uprightposition with theattachment app re l Figs. 2, 3 and 4 are side elevational viewsshowingthe three steps of an operation for dispensing solid contents from 'acontainer equipped with the attachment; a

i 5 is a vertical sectional view-0f the attachment;

Fig. dis a cross sectional view taken on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5;

Fig. .7. is a side elevational view of three interchangeable measuringtubes of mutually different capacity; and

.Figs. 8, 9,19 and 11 are side elevational views showing successivestepsin the operation of dispensinga liquid from a container equipped withthe attachment. r.

These views are made for the purpose of disclosureand not with-anyintention of limiting the invention or the-scope of the appended claimsto the details there shown. The illustrated embodiment constitutes thebest'mode inwhich I contemplate applying the principles of the inventionandshowsastructure which I have made and usedandwhich has proved to beeminently satisfactory." The .principles :of the invention may be.embodiedin other and different forms within the scope of the. appendedclaims.

. x In the drawing the reference numeral I designates a container in theform .of a bottle or jar the neck of whichis threaded or otherwiseconventionally formed :at 2 to receive the customary cap or stopper (notshown). The attachment provided by the presentinvention includes ahollow domei3'suitably formed and shaped at its lower edge.4 tovcomplement the container portion Z-sof that-.thexattachment can. beinterchanged with the cap or stopper. As shown, the portions 2 and 3areithrea'ded, butin case the container receives merely an internalplug,such as a cork, the" dome will be iinsertible into the container neck.The details of this feature of the construction are no part of theinvention, since it is sufli- I cient that: the attachment beinterchangeable with-the containerclosure- Extending obliquelydownwardly from an upper or intermediate portion of the dome is a partforming a'measurln'g chamber. 7 This whole part maybe unitary andintegral with the dome, but I'prefer tomake it' of two separableelements. One'of these is a spud 5 which is integral with the dome andis threaded-or otherwise formed in the vicinity of its lower edge toreceive a measuring tube 6. i This divided arrangement permit's'sevnatesat its lower endin an orifice which ,is substantially asgreat infiareaas the cross-sectional area of the tube. This orifice is normally closed.by a closure plate 1, her shown in the form of a metal stamping havingan integral handle 8" and mounted on the measuring tubeso as to.

swing about a pivot and be yieldably urged into closed position. v

The details of a preferred mounting arrangement are best shown in Fig.6. 2 These consist of a pair of apertured ears 9 struck up, from ormolded on the lower marginal edge of the meas uring tube and similar.ears.lll projecting from thehandle 8, all of the tearshavingtheiraper-' tures aligned and bearing a pintle ll. 'Wrapped aroundthe midportion ofthe pintle is. a torsion spring l 2 the opposite end .portionsof which bear against the rear surface of the handle and the adjacentside surface of the measuring tube. The seating faces of the closureplate and the measuring tube should make a good tight fit which Swill-bproof against-leakage by the kind of material that is to be handled.-bviously a somewhat better fit is. required forliquidsthan for.granular or powdered solidmaterials. r

The length of the tube and theangle of its inclinationwith respect tothe dome are such that all .parts of the lowerendof the-tube, fromwhich. its contents will be discharged by pressing the handle 8 towardthe tube, are spacedoutwardly beyond the .peripheral plane of thebody ofthe. container wall.- This proportioning of the parts. is clearly shownin Fig. 1, and an .imporinto, a receptac1e.,.l3 which alreadycontains aliquid and would be filled to overflowing if the receptacle had tobetilted to be positioned under the measuring tube.

.When the device is provided with. a separable spud and measuring .tube6, as ispreferred, the joint between these two elements is best placedup in the spud at leastas far as th junction of the spud and dome, so.that material, whether liquid or solid, standing. at restin themeasuringchamber will be contained-wholly within the tube andwill not be incontact .with the wall of the spudabove the upper edge of. the tube.This arrangement ,-is clearly illustrated in Fig. 5, where the spud isinternally threaded and surrounds thetube, which is. provided with anexternal thread meshed withth spud thread. By reference to this figureit will be evident that when material has been moved. from 'the container I, through .the dome 3 .and into th measuring tube, thecontainermay he stood upright and the material in themeasuring. tubewill settle by gravity to sucha level that it will be wholly below theupper end of the tubeelement per se.

In' this way there is no possibility of leakage.

through the joint by whichthe tube is connected be obvious from theforegoing explanation of its construction. If the container contents area dry material, such as a powder or granular subtity some predeterminedunit; such for example as one ounce. The other tubes, such as 6a and 6b,

will be made larger or smaller according to some appropriate scale, soas to have measured volumes of two ounces, one-half ounce, etc.

One using the device may shak the container and its attachment whenrestored to the upright position of Fig. 3 so as to level the contentsof the measuring chamber, or he may simply permit';the'trapped contentsof the chamber to settle at the angle of repose for the particularmaterial. In either case performance of the same operations any numberof times will always result in th measuring out of a'uniform quantity.The contents of the measuring chamber are discharged into some vessellike the receptacle l3 by simply pressing the handle 8 so as to open theclosure while the receptacle is held below the discharge end of thetube, as is shown in Fig. 4.

Figs. 8,9, 10 and 11 illustrate asimilar method of measuring out aquantity of liquid from the container I. In such use of the device therelationship of the spud and detachable tube, by which liquid in themeasuring chamber does not overlie the joint by which the spud and tubeare connected, is quiteimportant. It will be obvious thatthere can be noleakage through this joint since the joint is uncovered by the liquidwhen the containerstands upright. Hence the container may. be left forany length of time with liquid in the measuring chamber, and none willbe lost. Of course it is assumed that the closure element 1 makes goodfit with the tube outlet.

This is easily arranged by care and precision in manufacture, or byemploying a gasket in an obviousmanner. V

, The large openingat the lower end of the measuring tube, which isactually a bottomless tube because the size of the opening 'is equal tothe cross sectional area of the tube, makes it unnecessary to vent thetube for discharging any kind of material, even very viscous substances7 such as syrups, .heavy oils and the like. This is a real advantagebecause a continuously unclosed vent opening would be obviouslyobjectionable, and the addition of a valve or a closure for a ventopening would detract from the simplicity ofthe device and add toitscost of manufacture.

The materialof which the attachment is made may bemetal, glass, plasticor-thelike. The shape. of the attachment readily adapts the severalparts to be made by simple molding or stamping operations. l

It is. believed that from the foregoing it will be evident that theinvention provides a'simple, inexpensive and entirely practicaldispensing device having numerous novel and useful features. The detailsof the illustratedconstruction may be varied without departing from theprinciples of the invention aspointed out by the appended claims. 1 y

1. A dispensing attachment .for'a container such as a bottle or jarcomprising a cap including a dome attachable at its bottom to the mouthof the container, a spud projecting obliquely downwardly from the domeand having a bore communicating therewith, and a measuring tube havingan opena-ble closure at its lower end and attachable at its upper end tothe lower end of the spud and adapted when so attached to have a portionof its upper edge extending into the bore of the spud at least as far asthe junction of the spud and dome, whereby when material is moved fromthe container into the tube and leveled therein with the containerupright the contents of the attachment will be wholly within the tubewith the surface of such contents located below the level of the jointbetween the bore of the tube and the bore of the spud.

2. A dispensing attachment for a container such as a bottle or jarcomprising a cap including a dome attachable at its bottom to the mouthof the container, a spud projecting obliquely downwardly from the domeand having a bore communicating therewith, and a measuring tube havingan openable closure at its lower end and having its upper end insertibleinto the lower end of the spud for attachment to the spud, the extremeinner edge of the tube when so attached penetratingv the bore of thespud at least as far as the junction of the spud and dome, wherebymaterial from the container leveled in the attachment after thecontainer has been tilted and returned to upright position will contactonly said closure and the bore of the tube and will not contact the boreof the spud.

3. In a dispensing attachment for a container such as a bottle or jar ofthe class in which there is mounted on the container mouth a dome havinga downwardly projecting spud having a bore communicating with the dome,the combination of means for measuring a quantity of the containercontents to be discharged comprising a measuring tube having a valvedlower end and having an upper end adapted to be detachably received inthe lower end of the bore of the spud with the lowest point on the upperend of the tube positioned at least as high as the lowest point on thejunction between the dome and the spud when the container is upright,whereby material in the tube will tend to settle to a level below saidjunction and leakage will be prevented.

4. In a dispensing attachment for a container such as a bottle or jar ofthe class in which there is mounted on the container mouth a dome havinga downwardly projecting spud having an internally screw threaded borecommunicating with the dome, the combination of means for measuring aquantity of the container contents to be discharged comprising ameasuring tube having a valved lower end and having an upper endprovided with an external screwthread adapted to be engaged with thespud bore screwthread, the relation of the tube, spud and dome beingsuch that when the tube is threaded in place and the container isupright the lowest point on the upper end of the tube will be positionedat least as high as the lowest point on the junction between the domeand the spud, so that material in the tube will tend to settle to alevel below said junction and leakage will be prevented.

JOSEPH B. CLOWER.

